Oakland council revises A’s deal amid outrage

Update: Oakland’s City Council revised a deal to keep the A’s in Oakland for 10 years, but a team representative said he was “disappointed” by the changes.

The council’s 5-2 vote, with one abstention, sets up another public battle between the team and the city. Council members Rebecca Kaplan, Libby Schaaf, Lynette Gibson McElhaney and Pat Kernighan voted for the modified plan, while council members Noel Gallo and Larry Reid voted against the plan to modify the contract. Councilwoman Desley Brooks abstained.

Michael Crowley, the A’s president, said he was “disappointed” by the council’s vote but would have to review the proposed changes before commenting further.

Gallo, who stormed out of the chamber after the vote, said he worried the City Council had just voted to send the A’s to another city.

“It is more nonsense,” Gallo said. “The City Council is full of nonsense.”

But Nate Miley, who serves on the board that oversees the Coliseum complex, said he hoped the A’s would agree to the changes and stay in Oakland.

“If the A’s are agreeable to the terms the city voted on then I think we are good,” Miley said.

But Michael Crowley, the A’s president, said the team would accept no changes to a lease agreement that they have been negotiating with the Coliseum Authority for 14 months.

“We’d like the document to go ahead as it is,” Crowley told the council.

That sent Councilman Dan Kalb into a fiery rant during which he scolded the A’s for refusing to play nice and backing the city into a corner.

There are “really, really easy changes that you should be embarrassed not to go along with,” Kalb said. “It would be embarrassing to the A’s to not go along with these changes that are absolutely modest and reasonable.”

@WillKane I want to approve lease WITH modest proposed clarifications by CM Kernighan & our City Attorney. Should be easy for A's to agree!